Placement Report
Douwe van der Zwaag
Student International Relations and International Organisations
Address: Turfsingel 22 A – 9712KR Groningen
E-mail: j.d.van.der.zwaag@student.rug.nl
Telephone: 0612582022
Placement Organisation: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague
Placement Period: 03 September 2018 – 31 January 2019
Supervisor at Placement: Ms Nuria Reques Waterink- de Waal
Supervisor at RUG: Ms Loes Feringa
Placement Report
About my Internship at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the
Hague
Douwe van der Zwaag S2915634
Degree Programme:
International Relations and International Organisations at the University of Groningen
Placement period:
03 September 2018 - 31 January 2019
Preface
On September 3, 2018, I started my placement at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as part of my Bachelor International Relations and International Organisations in Groningen. Being an organisation active in the field of international security, a placement in the OPCW fitted perfectly in my interest in security studies. Although the selection process took some time, I am very glad that ms Nuria Reques gave me the opportunity to become a part of her branch. It is appropriate therefore express my gratitude once more to her, especially for her supportive supervision during my internship. This report marks the end of a period in which I have learned much and in which I have got many unforgettable experiences and marks at the same time the beginning of new steps in my future professional career.
Table of contents
Preface ... 0
Table of contents ... Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Introduction ... 3
1. About the OPCW ... 4
Goal and means ... 4
Recent developments and OPCW involvement ... 5
Organisational structure and relevant explanations. ... 6
a. The Conference of State Parties ... 6
b. The Executive Council ... 6
c. The Technical Secretariat ... 7
d. Administrative Division - ISB ... 7
e. Secretariat for the Policy Making Organs (PMO) ... 7
2. Placement assignments and projects ... 9
ISB Intranet in SharePoint ... 9
Speaking Notes during EC and CSP ... 9
ARBOR Fool sheet/Q-doc ... 10
Telecommunication project ... 10
ISB Team site ... 10
3. Evaluation ... 12
Achieved learning outcomes ... 12
Concluding remarks ... 14
Appendices ... 16
Introduction
The OPCW found its origin in the agreement of the Chemical Weapons Convention, signed in Paris in 1993. In the subsequent years, the OPCW was set up to become operational in 1997 and to propagate its device “Working together for a world free of Chemical Weapons”.1 Existing over 20 years now, the organisation, based in The Hague has been successful in combating the use and proliferation of chemical weapons, reflected also in its increasing number of state parties. In the first part of this report, I will give a more detailed description of the OPCW, focusing on the organizational structure and recent developments related to chemical weapons.
My internship at the OPCW was my first encounter with what working in professional environment related to my studies could look like. During my placement, I have worked for the Information Services Branch and the Secretariat of the Policy Making Organs. In ISB, my main task was to create a new intranet environment for the branch. For my work in PMO, I attended many meetings of the Conference of the State Parties and the Executive Council, during which I was responsible for the speaker’s record. In the second part of this report, I will elaborate more on these assignments and my performance.
After five months of working in the organisation, I have tried to use the learning outcomes to get to know more about the organisation. In the evaluation, to be found in the third part of this report, I will elaborate on my lessons and experiences with the aim of giving an encompassing overview of my placement. I will start by evaluating the learning outcomes and give some illustrative examples of what I came across in the past half year. In addition to this, I will make some conclusions about the influence of my internship at the OPCW has attributed to my future plans.
Despite having my doubts at the outset of this step, I am happy to have had my placement at the OPCW. The organisation is particular in its sense and although I think it lacks efficiency.
On the other hand, the staff working there are professional, warm-hearted and open to questions, making my internship a great experience and first step in my professional career.
1 Hereinafter, I will use ‘the organisation’ to refer to the OPCW and ‘the convention’ to refer to the Chemical Weapons Convention in turns. Where suitable, I have made use of abbreviations anticipating on profusion of repetitive use of words. For a more explanation on the different acronyms and abbreviations, I refer to Appendix 1.
1. About the OPCW
Goal and means
To accommodate the needs for the OPCW to fulfil their goal, Article VIII of the Chemical Weapons Convention entitles the organisation to achieve the purpose of the provisions laid down in the convention. The convention underlines OPCW goals and prescribes the means and procedures to act accordingly.
The OPCW operational procedure depends heavily on four pillars in the CWC. First, the Organisation oversees the destruction and verification of existing stockpiles. Secondly, the OPCW does not only verify the existence of declared chemical weapons stockpiles, but also monitors the non-proliferation of toxic chemicals listed in the convention. Member states to the CWC have special obligations with regard to these chemicals, as they can be used for peaceful purposes. Thirdly, the Organisation implements its duties under the treaty by providing assistance and protection to state parties, whenever they have requested this under the provisions of article X CWC. Lastly, the OPCW has the means and competence to foster international cooperation concerning the obligations under the Treaties. The organisation maintains a network of authorities that implement the CWC at the state level and promotes actively interchange between these national authorities.
In achieving its main objective stated above, the OPCW has been successful in overseeing the destruction of 98% of the declared chemical weapons stockpiles.2 From all the OPCW, only the United States have not wholly fulfilled their obligations to destroy their chemical weapons stockpile. As a token of worldwide appreciation for this success, the OPCW has been awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
In order to become to make its effort a success, it is crucial for the organisation to increase the number of state parties to the CWC. Therefore, ensuring universality of the principles and agreements in the convention by the means of incorporating every state in the world in its work, has been one of the main priorities of the organisation since its foundation.
In 2018, universality was nearly achieved as 193 states are now a state party to the convention.
Only North-Korea, South-Sudan, Egypt and Israel are to become member states, although the latter has been a signatory state since 1993.
2 “Achieving Universality: Ensuring a Truly Global Treaty,” OPCW, accessed February 1, 2019, https://www.opcw.org/our-work/achieving-universality-convention.
Recent developments and OPCW involvement
In the past five years the Organisation has witnessed several events that requested some serious attention and effort. Since 2013, there were a number of occasions in which toxic chemical agents were used in (military) attacks around the world. As I explained above, providing State parties with assistance is one of the four pillars of the OPCW, appeals to the organisation were made in the aftermath of chemical attacks in Syria in the United Kingdom last year. In addition, when I had just started my internship, the Dutch Ministry of Defense published their successful frustration of a hacking attempt at the OPCW by Russian Individuals.3
Despite their successful effort in eliminating chemical weapons, the accumulation of instances of chemical weapons use in the past five years made that the organisation had to respond. They started to do so in 2015, when the UNSC adopted resolution no. 2235, establishing a Joint-Investigative Mechanism (JIM) between the UN and the OPCW, with the aim of attributing responsibility to the use of chemical weapons. Prior to the adoption of this resolution, the OPCW had no such capability.4 Although such cooperation would not seem odd at first glance, this resolution actually increased the mandate and impact of the OPCW in their possibility of pointing out perpetrators of the CWC. The JIM mandate lasted until the end of 2017, after a one-year extension. During this period, it held several investigations in Syria.
Eventually, the JIM concluded that both ISIL and the Assad government have been actively using chemical weapons in during the Syrian Civil War.5
After having reported the investigated cases to the UNSC, the JIM mandate was not extended after the end of 2017, making the OPCW unable to continue executing their attributive discretion. To compensate for this loss of competence, the OPCW convened a special session of the CSP in June 2018. During this meeting, the OPCW member states enabled the Technical Secretariat to set up an attribution division, that would more or less take over many of the JIM’s
3 Liza van Lonkhuyzen, Joep Dohmen, “MIVD verijdelt cyberaanval door Russische spionnen,” NRC, October 5, 2018, https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/10/05/mivd-verijdelt-cyberaanval-door-russische-spionnen-
a2209708.
4 United Nations, Security Council, Resolution 2235: Non-Proliferation of Chemical Weapons in Syria (August 2015): 1, http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/2235.
5 United Nations, Security Council, S/2017/904: Letter from the Leadership Panel of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism addressed to the Secretary-General (October 2017): 14,
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3- CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2017_904.pdf/.
responsibilities, a decision not veiled without controversy. 6 Both Syria and Russia were strong opponents to the setting up of such an attribution mechanism, following up the Russian veto in the UNSC for further extension of the JIM mandate in 2017. As a result, there were fierce debates concerning the approval of the 2019 budget, in which funding for the Attribution Mechanism was reserved. It appears that the ‘June decision’ remains boiling beneath many of the discussions in the Policy Making Organs of the OPCW.
Organisational structure and relevant explanations.
Within the organisation, several organs are established with regard to achieving this objective.
See Appendix 2 for an overview of the Organisation’s structure. I will now highlight and explain the facets of the organisation I have regarded as most important.
a. The Conference of State Parties
The CWC refers in article 8B to the CSP as the main policy-making organ of the organisation.
Its powers are laid down in the CWC under article VIII. Its main functions entail the implementation of the convention, considerations of issues related to powers and functions of the EC and the TS and adopting a yearly budget for the organisation. The CSP consists of every state member to the CWC and organize an annual meeting in November. Every 5 years, the Conference meets in a special review session, to set out the long-term policies for the organisation based on its results and activities in the past. During my internship, I attended a both the normal and the review conference.
b. The Executive Council
In addition to the policy making activities of the Conference, the Executive Council is the smaller forum responsible for the implementation of the CWC. Its powers and duties are laid down in article VIII of the convention. It cooperates with the Technical Secretariat and oversees the relations with National Authorities on the implementation of the Convention. Moreover, the Council prepares a yearly draft budget to the Conference for adoption and reports to the conference on stressing and pending issues that are of interest for the Conference. Membership of the Executive Council changes every two years, as members are installed for a two-year term.
The Council is composed of in total 41 members whose geographical distribution represents
6 “CWC Conference of the States Parties Adopts Decision Addressing the Threat from Chemical Weapons Use,” OPCW, June 28, 2018, https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2018/06/cwc-conference-states- parties-adopts-decision-addressing-threat-chemical.
best the interest of all the member states’ inhabitants.7 At least 3 sessions of 4 days of meetings are organised every year. In addition, the Council can organise special meetings to settle some specific issues.
c. The Technical Secretariat
The Technical Secretariat is the OPCW organ most visible to the outside world. During my internship I was part of the TS staff, which comprises around 550 staff members. As the membership of the OPCW is reserved to states, the Technical Secretariat’s staff is composed of a wide variety of nationalities. The TS’ main task is to implement the provisions as laid down in the convention using the powers the convention has attributed to the TS. Among these are providing technical support to member states for further implementation of the CWC, fostering of international cooperation for chemistry programmes for peaceful purposes and verifying declarations of chemical weapons by member states. The Technical Secretariat is headed by a Director-General, who is responsible to the CSP and serves for a term of 4 years.
The TS is composed of different divisions and branches as you can see in Appendix 2. Because I worked during my internship in the Administration Division and the Secretariat for the Policy Making Organs, I will only address these two divisions shortly.
d. Administrative Division - ISB
During my internship I was part of the Information Services Branch, one of the administrative branches. ISB delivers the services for (tele)communication and Information Technology within the Organisation. Like other branches in the Administrative Division, ISB is a supportive branch for the entire organisation and is responsible for the execution of new IT projects and maintaining the IT environment within the organisation. ISB is comprised of around 25 people and divided in several small teams. As an intern I have been part of several teams that worked on different projects, whom I will later describe in more detail.
e. Secretariat for the Policy Making Organs (PMO)
Apart from being part of ISB during my internship, I spent much time in the Secretariat for the Policy Making Organs. Different from other divisions, PMO is responsible directly to the Deputy Director General and acts supportively to the Conference of State Parties and the Executive committee. Among PMO’s duties are the organisation of sessions for the CSP and EC and the preparation and correct distribution of documents needed in the decision-making
7 “Executive Council: The Governing Body of the OPCW,” OPCW, accessed February 3, 2019, https://www.opcw.org/about-us/executive-council.
process. In addition, PMO provides translating services to the organisation, as the organisation has six official languages. For the Language Services Branch of PMO, it is their task to distribute the official documents in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and French.
During sessions of the policy making organs, LSB also provides interpretation services for the delegations.
2. Placement assignments and projects
ISB Intranet in SharePoint
In the first weeks of my stay at the OPCW, I was mainly busy with the implementation of a new intranet for ISB. Since last year, the OPCW has adopted SharePoint as its programme for internal communication and information spreading, replacing a platform that was in use since 2003. My job was to analyse the current platform, look for improvements, make recommendations and incorporate these recommendations in the final design of the new intranet.
As I was not only a newcomer in the organisation, but also to SharePoint and to IT related issues in general, I decided to do the analysis in a way I knew best from university: by conducting qualitative interviews. An example of the interview questions I put forward are found in Annex 3. During the first four weeks I was mainly conducting these interviews with people within my branch. I recorded our discussions and transcript them. I asked staff members within my branch about their preferences and experiences with the current intranet and their expectations for the new intranet. This was not only useful for the formulation of my recommendations later, but it also enabled me to get to know the people I would be working with most closely in the remainder of my internship.
After I finalised the latest interview in the beginning of October, I started to work on the recommendations and the first drafts for content. I was asked to give a presentation to the chief meeting – a get together of the managing positions within our branch – about my progress so far. Some slides of this presentation can be found in Annex 4. The recommendations I made were received well and I was allowed to enter the production phase.
In close cooperation with two of my branch colleagues I worked in the following month on the SharePoint pages. Eventually they were finished and launched in early December. See annex 5 for the final mail announcing the launch of ISB’s new intranet.
Speaking Notes during EC and CSP
Next to my Tasks in ISB, I was also part of PMO during two conferences. From October 9-13 I was attending the sessions of the Executive Committee and from November 19 – 30, I attended the Conference of State Parties in the World Forum.
Although I originally was assigned to distribute documents to delegates in the room, I was invited before the start of the EC to make up the speakers record form during the meetings.
The speaking record is basically the analogue storage of minutes. Whenever PMO is requested to look up certain excerpts or citations from EC or CSP meetings, they can refer to the speaking
record as an accessory. It was my task thus to make the minutes of what was being said during the meetings. In order to do so, I was supposed to keep my full attention on that what was being discussed to convert it directly in the speaking record. Next to this I was part of the team that distributed relevant official documents to delegates in the room and our team was often addressed by delegates for other information related to the conference.
ARBOR Fool sheet/Q-doc
Before I started working for PMO during the EC, my supervisor noted that I should get acquainted with the recording system that the OPCW uses for meetings in the Ieper Conference Room at the OPCW headquarters. The system, distributed by ARBOR, was introduced during the summer of 2018 and was used for a few test recordings only. The upcoming meeting of the Executive Council in October 2018 would be the second time the new system was used for official meetings of the OPCW.
I was asked to make a ‘foolsheet’ for the use of the ARBOR system, that could be used later on to introduce new staff members to the recording mechanism. In order to do so, I attended a meeting with a consultant from ARBOR, in which many issues were raised and noted. During the EC, I got more experience with the system and shortly after I began writing the first draft. The purpose of this document was to make it as easy as possible for other staff members to follow up on it. After finishing the manual, I was asked to process the manual in a Quality Systems Document. This is the OPCW’s system of documentation storage about systems and applications that are used. A Qdoc represents the morale behind a certain system and explains how it works.
Telecommunication project
In the final weeks, ISB launched the final stage of the telecommunication project. The project aimed primarily at replacing the current telephony network in the Organisation with new phones on a new network. During this week, I distributed and installed phones across the entire building. Most of the staff members directed the first questions to us and we answered them when possible.
ISB Team site
Following the change of the OPCW’s intranet to SharePoint, the platform for the inter branch cooperation has also moved to SharePoint. This implied that ISB would need a new online team site on SharePoint as their main platform of collaboration. As other tasks were already finished in the beginning of the New Year, the setup of the team site project was my project in my last
month and simultaneously the reason for extending my internship at OPCW. I had several discussions concerning the set-up of this cloud storage of documents. After this way of working was approved, I got to upload the first 1000 of more than 10.000 files and I briefed my colleagues how they should proceed when I would finish my internship.
3. Evaluation
Achieved learning outcomes
In the placement plan that I submitted prior to beginning at the OPCW, I had some difficulty with drawing up the learning outcomes. During the internship I was placed in an IT branch.
Due to the fact that I had no experience in an IT branch (or any office space in general); I was not really sure what to expect. At the time I had to rely on the list of tasks my supervisor at the OPCW made up for me, which was very helpful though. In additional consultation with the placement coordinator at the RUG, ms. Feringa, I came up with six different learning outcomes.
a. Broadening and using new IT skills
Because I was new to IT, it was necessary to build on some basic skills to cope up with ongoing projects within the branch. This was however not that simple. In the first two weeks of the placement, I entered a world full of new jargon and working knowledge. Although I asked around, it was still hard to get full a full understanding of the dozens of projects and duties that ISB monitors and implements simultaneously. Luckily, my internship coordinator was aware of my background and assigned me with a less technical assignments as explained above.
Thanks to this approach, I was eventually able to become familiar with programmes like SharePoint, of which I was previously even unaware of existing.
Despite my expectations being very high concerning this learning outcome and the difficulty to accept that I just simply could not know everything, I am still happy with that what I have picked up in practical terms. In addition, conducting the interviews and asking about work in IT, I do have a better understanding of the role Information Technology plays in organisations.
b. Understand the structure and daily routine of an International Organization
Next to being for the first time in an office, my internship was also the first encounter I had with international organisations. The Technical Secretariat of the OPCW would be a great opportunity to get a better understanding of how International organisations work. For this purpose, the OPCW is a perfect test case due to its manageable size and many employees that have experiences in other international organisations. In addition, although the OPCW is not a UN organ, the organisation’s structure and working method is clearly derived from UN examples. This makes that my internship in the OPCW could give me some useful insight whether organisations like the OPCW fit with my personality and interests
As I would describe myself as an open and curious person, the Organisation was the perfect place to get in touch with people from very different backgrounds. There was not only a great differentiation in cultural and national backgrounds, also the academic and professional experiences of OPCW staff vary. The rather small size of the organisation made also that you would actually meet these people frequently. Of course, most of the time I was working with the colleagues within my branch, but I had warm contacts with many staff from other branches as well. I have the feeling that many staff share these feelings of curiosity and friendliness, which made the organisation very appealing to me.
c. Getting used to close cooperation with colleagues to identify my role in group projects Although I had some experience with working in groups in university, I learned during my placement that working on group projects in a professional environment is somewhat different.
Whereas I would normally focus on one project at university, I did not expect staff to be busy with several projects at once. Although everyone was always very helpful and open to me, you could not just slip into someone’s activities to request their immediate help or opinion on something you were just working on. As a result, there would occur some unexpected delay to the projects I was working on and I found it difficult to adapt to this in the first place. After some time though, I realised that by the means of clear communication and preparation for meetings with colleagues, I was able to make more of my time and questions that I had.
d. Improve my communication skills (public speaking and writing) in a professional environment
In addition to the previous learning outcome, another one focusing on the professional environment and the way of communicating would be suitable. Even though I got used to using formal language during university already, my internship was set in a more formal environment, putting my effort to the test. Thereby, due to the diverse cultural backgrounds of staff members, the official working language is somewhat formal and distant. Within my branch, this was not such a big problem at all, but for the CSP and EC we were specially briefed of how to associate yourself when you would speak and encounter diplomats or envoys. This was particularly interesting for me, as the diplomatic community is well known for its (somewhat exaggerated) well-behaved etiquette and glossed vocabulary and this would be the first time I would experience this.
Besides the new experience of the diplomatic language, I had no real further improvement in other communication skills. Of course, the working language was English, but I was already used to English as my main language due to the choice of my degree programme.
Further I have been asked to present my intranet project to my branch management, but I do not really envision that as a benchmark of improvement for my communication skills.
Concluding remarks
Now that I have finished my placement, I can definitely assure that my internship met my expectations, although I was a bit reserved at the outset of my internship as I had no prior experience with working in an IT branch. In the beginning it was somewhat difficult though, because I had to get used to the rhythm and the daily routine within the branch. After a while though, I was more aware of what working in the organisation entailed and this helped me with shaping my expectation a bit.
One of the important things I learned is that making changes in an organisation is not something that should be underestimated. You are dealing with operations and working routines that some staff has been working with for a long time, which makes it harder for them to accept that changes are necessary or even inevitable. I am not saying that the OPCW is not open to changes, but from conversations I have had with staff members and other interns I have learned that the organisation is can be cumbersome and bureaucratic.
In these same conversations I heard that working pressure in the organization is sometimes low, leading to inefficiency within the organisation. I encountered myself some afternoons where I had the feeling not much was happening, and I was not really prepared to that. I am of the opinion that this results from the OPCW’s foundations, which are not competitive in nature.
Being good at working under pressure I am not sure yet whether I will continue in this kind of organizations and for the future, I would like to discover my opportunities in business life as well.
All in all, I can conclude that my placement has been a success. I met a lot of interesting people and got great opportunities to work on interesting projects. I became acquainted with working in domains unknown to me, like diplomacy and IT. I am grateful to have acquired many impressions about what working in an international political organisation would look like.
Especially being present and active at the official meetings of the OPCW is an experience I will never forget. In addition, the placement has inspired me well to think actively about what I would do after finishing my bachelor’s and master’s degree.
References
Van Lonkhuyzen, Liza and Joep Dohmen. “MIVD verijdelt cyberaanval door Russische spionnen.” NRC, October 5, 2018.
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/10/05/mivd-verijdelt-cyberaanval-door-russische- spionnen-a2209708.
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “Achieving Universality: Ensuring a Truly Global Treaty. ” Accessed February 1, 2019.
https://www.opcw.org/our-work/achieving-universality-convention.
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “CWC Conference of the States Parties Adopts Decision Addressing the Threat from Chemical Weapons Use.” June 28, 2018. https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2018/06/cwc-conference-states-
parties-adopts-decision-addressing-threat-chemical.
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “Executive Council: The Governing Body of the OPCW.” Accessed February 3, 2019. https://www.opcw.org/about-
us/executive-council.
United Nations Security Council. Resolution 2235: Non-Proliferation of Chemical Weapons in Syria (August 2015). http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/2235.
United Nations, Security Council. S/2017/904: Letter from the Leadership Panel of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism addressed to the Secretary-General (October 2017). https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27- U4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2017_904.pdf/.
Appendices
Appendix 1 – Abbreviations
Appendix 2 – Overview of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Technical Secretariat.
Appendix 3 – Interview Questions
Appendix 4 – Presentation to Chief Meeting Appendix 5 – Final product of the ISB Intranet
Appendix 1 – Abbreviations
CSP Conference of State Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention CWC Chemical Weapons Convention
Full name: Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction
EC Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
ISB Information Services Branch
JIM OPCW/UN Joint Investigation Mechanism LSB Language Services Branch
OPCW The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons PMO Secretariat for the Policy-Making Organs
Qdoc Quality Systems Document
TS Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
UN United Nations
UNSC United Nations Security Council
Appendix 2 – Overview of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Technical Secretariat.
Image 1: Schematic overview of the structure of the OPCW
Image 2: Organisational Structure of the Technical Secretariat.
Branches in which I was involved during my placement are marked in red.
Appendix 3 – Interview Questions
The questions below and the additional introduction demonstrate my approach to designing a new intranet for ISB. I have had meetings with 15 ISB staff members in total
Introduction
The process of creating of a new portal for daily use by OPCW employees needs to take into account the preferences of its users. Therefore, in this round of interviews, I will go by the desk of every ISB staff member in order to get an overview of what the staff expects of the new portal in SharePoint. These preferences will be taken into account when the content – and its place – for the new ISB portal will be created.
Part of the content will be a description of our branch and its way of working; an essential part of the new SharePoint Portal. An additional advantage of these interviews is that I will get acquainted with the organisational structure of our branch, including an insightful look in the IT governance structure of the OPCW.
Although most of the interviews will treat roughly the same questions, I will try to focus in each interview on the staff member’s preferences and personal expertise. I will make minutes of each interview.
In the end, I will compare the minutes of all the interviews. On the basis of this comparison, I will write a summary that should bring forward the features of the most important suggestions, complaints or other ideas worth noticing.
I - General Questions
1. Please describe shortly what your function entails. What section are you in?
2. What are your main projects? Of which project are you the manager? Could you tell me something about these?
3. With which colleagues within ISB do you work most closely?
II - The current ISB portal
4. How often do you use the current ISB portal on Olympic?
5. For what purposes do you visit the current ISB portal on Olympic?
6. If you look at these sitemaps, what parts and links of the ISB portal do you use frequently?
7. If you were to delete any of the content of these sitemaps, what would it be? Why?
8. If you look at the division, look and structure of the current ISB portal, do you think that some features should be enhanced?
9. Is there any information on the portal that is not easily accessible for you as a user?
10. Are there any other suggestions or remarks on the current ISB portal?
III – Collaboration of the staff member with other colleagues.
11. If you collaborate with colleagues on a certain project, then what way of collaboration and communication do you prefer?
12. Does the type of project influence the way of collaboration and communication with your colleagues?
13. Do you have any current projects for which you are using SharePoint? If so, could you show me?
IV – The new SharePoint portal
14. Concerning the new SharePoint ISB portal, at first glance, what do you think is
essential to be in it? And, with the old Olympic Portal in mind, what would you expect to improve?
15. Would you see the ISB SharePoint portal as a service to other OPCW employees? Or more as a branch-wide portal for collaboration?
16. Considering the structure, would you still feel that a division between BA/OIS is useful to emphasize on the new portal?
17. Considering the content, is there any information about our branch that needs to be updated or added to the new SharePoint portal?
18. With regard to the visitors of the ISB portal – not the ones in our branch – what do you think that they will be looking for?
19. In general, do you still have any remarks?
Appendix 4 – Presentation to Chief Meeting
The images below show some impressions about the Chief Meeting presentation, in which I presented my findings retrieved from the interviews. After giving an overview of the Project status, I presented my methods, results and recommendations.
Image 3: About the project status. When I presented this to the Chief Meeting on the 18th of October, I was more or less halfway the project.
Image 4: These summarize best the outcomes of the interviews I had with 15 ISB Staff members
Image 5: At the presentation I proposed the following recommendations for changing the Intranet.
Appendix 5 – Final Product of the ISB Intranet Portal Image 6: Accompanying E-mail at the launch day
Image 7 : Impression of the new Intranet Home Page
